10/25/2004 11:00:00 PM|W|P|Doc|W|P|Special News Release: Marijuana Arrests For Year 2003 Hit Record High, FBI
NORML October 25, 2004 Washington, DC, USA
Report Reveals Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 42 Seconds
Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 755,187 persons for marijuana violations in 2003, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised 45 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.
"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 42 seconds in America.
"This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources, costing American taxpayers approximately $7.6 billion dollars annually. These dollars would be better served combating serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism.
"Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88 percent - some 662,886 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 92,301 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. In past years, approximately 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger.
"Present policies have done little if anything to decrease marijuana's availability or dissuade youth from trying it," Stroup said, noting that a majority of young people now report that they have easier access to pot than alcohol or tobacco.
The total number of marijuana arrests for 2003 far exceeded the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Marijuana arrests for 2003 increased 8 percent from the previous year, and have nearly doubled since 1993."Arresting adults who smoke marijuana responsibly needlessly destroys the lives of tens of thousands of otherwise law abiding citizens each year," Stroup said.
In the past decade, more than 6.5 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, more than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming combined. Nearly 90 percent of these total arrests were for simple possession, not cultivation or sale.
During much of this time, arrests for cocaine and heroin have declined sharply, indicating that increased enforcement of marijuana laws is being achieved at the expense of enforcing laws against the possession and trafficking of more dangerous drugs.
"Marijuana legalization would remove this behemoth financial burden from the criminal justice system, freeing up criminal justice resources to target other more serious crimes, and allowing law enforcement to focus on the highest echelons of hard-drug trafficking enterprises rather than on minor marijuana offenders who present no threat to public safety," Stroup said.
Later this fall, the NORML Foundation will be releasing a comprehensive report examining the nature, extent and costs of marijuana arrests in the United States.
The report will feature state-by-state analysis of marijuana arrests by race, as well as an economic and geographic analysis of US marijuana arrests. Further information on NORML's forthcoming report is available by contacting the NORML Foundation at: media@norml.org.
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.
[zombienote: Taking a break from chasing harmless American potsmokers and medical users, Ashcroft cheers an apparent drop in crime, while John Edwards' office released a statement claiming that murders increased. The New York Times seems to have had a similar observation.
Don't forget they jailed Tommy Chong, harrassed and attempted to ruin Ed Rosenthal, jailed Bryan Epis, Raided numerous medical marijuana clinics, and so forth. It's a record of brilliant accomlishments.
Don't you feel safer?
And hey.... for some inexplicable reason, criminals love them some Bush .
Our tax dollars hard at work.]
|W|P|109876069959370815|W|P|Marijuana Arrests For Year 2003 Hit Record High|W|P|xxdr_zombiexx@yahoo.com10/17/2004 01:34:00 PM|W|P|Doc|W|P|Hey there...I am "Doc Zombie" general cannabis relegalizer and internet agitator. This article is the first installment of my desire to launch into the "blogosphere".
Some people may have heard of me from the website “www.marijuana.com” or ”The Smirking Chimp”. I am a relatively simple man with a demand that cannabis be legalized as there is not one reason for it to be illegal. Not one good reason that applies to you or me. I have my own particular perspectives on marijuana prohibition, but I share the general consensus that it is wrong and long past time for it to have been ended.
I use this name, which really means nothing, as a way to attempt to protect my privacy. There have long been no First Amendment protections for those of us working for relegalizaton and this has been exacerbated by the PATRIOT act and other nefarious activities of the Bush Administration. I don’t want to get arrested, ruined or shot to death for something as benign as smoking some pot in my backyard.
The cannabis plant is illegal to protect the profiteering of a variety of massive corporations - Big Oil, Big Pharma, general extractive industries, and to allow the Federal Government to shred the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in it's quest to cast off the limitations set upon it in those documents.
Since the cannabis plant can make pretty much anything aside from gasoline and wedding rings, it is necessary for corporations to suppress it to jack up the value of their products. I focus on this a lot in Cannabis is Forever, an article I will be overhauling for this blog.
The Federal Government specifically uses it to squelch the intent of the 10th amendment, which is designed to prevent it from doing exactly what it is doing these days. More on this in future articles.
There is a serious and intense culture war raging in America right now. It has lingered for decades, escalating in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan, who was accompanied by what we call the "religious right", a group of delusional, mean-spirited folks who think they speak for God. Clearly I stand on the progressive side of the "Conservative/Progressive split in this war.
Marijuana is, to a great extent, a dividing line in this war, but as can be seen at Marijuana.com, many "conservative"/rightwing sorts feel they can support the GOP and still hope for cannabis reform. Recently that website elected to go fully rightwing after a period of bitter in-fighting among the constituents, along culture war lines.
In The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on Drugs Cockburn and St. Clair illustrate how both political parties have conspired to use the "war on drugs" to amplify their respective powers and reach. They have written from a standpoint that there is not a Dimes worth of difference between the two parties. On one level, it is hard to dispute such a claim, but I think that's a bit "unnuanced".
I am not a fan of either party but, simply stated, voting for the GOP will NEVER get those of us who seek the re-legalization of cannabis to where we want to be. The GOP will work against public opinion day and night because it has internalized reefer madness as part of it's party identity: to be Republican means to be against anything smelling remotely like a change in total suppression of cannabis.
The Dems have only a thin veneer of superiority to this, superiority defined as the ability to discuss meaningful reform without launching into a reefer mad seizure. There are more members of the Democratic party who have sponsored good legislation that there are Republicans. And dems can, again, talk about reform without uttering the bizarre nonsense we are used to from the GOP.
There is a yin-yang phenomenon with the 2 parties and it is highlighted by their respective approaches to cannabis law. The GOP, as will be repeated again and again, are foam-at-the-mouth reefer mad totalitarians. Marijuana equals terrorism to them and they are patriotically blowing our tax dollars by the billions to save us from it.
The federal government and particularly the Bush administration repeats this nonsense proudly whenever possible. Democrats have all to gleefully supported the GOP regarding cannabis issues, but has shown some proclivity to support reform regarding medical cannabis.
That said, there are, of course a few Republicans who do support meaningful cannabis reform while there are Democrats so mean-spirited and backwards they should be force to register as the republicans they truly are.
Cannabis is an election year issue in many states and medical marijuana shows up in the Presidential race, as it is a mainstream issue despite the complete mainstream media blackout on it..WHERE THEY STAND
NORTHWEST ISSUES Bush: Pushed new law aimed at speeding thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger and provide timber. Reversed Clinton administration rule protecting roadless areas, saying states should have more role in deciding what lands to put off-limits. Backs $150 million project to deepen Columbia River channel. Seeking court decision to overturn Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Seeking court action to halt medical marijuana laws in Oregon and other states.
Kerry: Says that forest-thinning efforts should be concentrated near communities and that current law allows too much commercial logging. Backs roadless protections. Will work with officials on Columbia River channel deepening but is concerned about environmental effect. Personally opposes assisted-suicide law but says states should be free to make their own policy in this area. Says would not move against medical marijuana laws while studies are being conducted on the drug's value in pain management.
Bush, clearly, represents the rightwing, pro-corporate agenda when it comes to anything, and that includes cannabis relegalizaton.
His buddies in Big Pharma and the Oil Corporations have to keep marijuana suppressed to prop up their profits. They tolerate absolutely no challenge to these massive profits.
Kerry represents the fact that the Dems can talk about the issue without coming unglued or spewing marijuana hate speech, but he still plats along with the “we need more research” foot-dragging game. Better, of course, but with tremendous room for improvement. No more studies are needed – that’s ridiculous. But then so is politics.
Thanks for reading and there is more to come.
Doc / xxdr_zombiexx@yahoo.com
|W|P|109803302703475262|W|P|Zombienotes - Launching the Blog of xxdr_zombiexx|W|P|xxdr_zombiexx@yahoo.com